English idioms and application of communicative translation method to translate them into vietnamese submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements of the degree of bachelor of arts in english

HANOI PEADAGIGICAL UNIVERSITY NO 2
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FACULTY

DOAN VAN LONG

ENGLISH IDIOMS AND APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE
TRANSLATION METHOD TO TRANSLATE THEM INTO
VIETNAMESE
(SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF THE DEGREE OF BACHELORS OF ARTS IN ENGLISH)

SUPERVISOR: DO TIEN DUC, M.A

Hanoi, 2016

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr. Do Tien Duc, for the
continuous support of my study and research, for his patience, motivation,
enthusiasm, and immense knowledge in all four academic years. I appreciate all
his contributions of time, ideas, and funding to make my experience productive
and stimulating, without whose valuable comments and guidance, my thesis
would not have been accomplished.
I wish to thank all the lecturers at Hanoi Pedagogical University Number
2, especially the lecturers in the Foreign Language Faculty for their dedicated
instructions during years of university work and their participations in fullfiling
my questionnaire.
I would like to express my deep love and appreciation to my parents,

brothers and sisters, who always encouraged me with love and spiritually
supported me throughout my life.
Finally, I am particularly grateful to my close friends for their enthusiasm
and kindness, to course 38 and 39 students of Foreign Language Faculty for
helping me in doing the survey.

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ABSTRACT
Idiom share cultural and historical information and broadens people’s
understanding and manipulation of a language. English idioms are not an
exception. They partially conveys British culture aspect on itself. It is important
to understand idioms in another language whenever learning them.
Due to the differences among languages, to translate an idiom into another
language is not easy. There are a number of translation method used to translate
English idioms into Vietnamese. However, not all methods are the ultimate one
to translate them. Each method produce different translation versions and they
all have their pros and cos.
Therefore, this research work would like to contribute an investigation of
English idioms and to prove the researcher’s view that communicative
translation is the most suitable method for translating English idioms into
Vietnamese.

iii


STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

Title: English idioms and the application of communicative translation to

translate them into Vietnamese.
(Graduation paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Bachelor of
Arts in English)
I certify that no part of the above report has been copied from any other
person’s work without acknowledgements and that the report is originally
written by me under the instructions of my supervisor.
Date submitted: May 2016

Student

Supervisor

Doan Van Long

Do Tien Duc

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LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES
Chart 1: The propotion of participants in the group of students showing their
knowledge of English idioms
Chart 2. Choice of participants for best translation methods to translate English
idioms into Vietnamese
Table 1: The number and percentage of participants with their choices of
translation versions for the first English idiom.
Table 2: The number and percentage of participants with their choices of
translation versions for the second English idiom
Table 3: The number and percentage of participants with their choices of
translation versions for the third English idiom.

Table 4: The number and percentage of participants with their choices of
translation versions for the fourth English idiom.
Table 5: The number and percentage of participants with their choices of
translation versions for the fifth English idiom.

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TABLE OF CONTENT
PART ONE ................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION .....................................................................................................1
1.

Rationale ........................................................................................................1

2.

Aims of the study ...........................................................................................2

3.

Research significance.....................................................................................2

4. Scope of the study ...........................................................................................2
5.

Working methods ...........................................................................................3

6.

The hypothesis ...............................................................................................3

7.

Design of the research work. .........................................................................3
The study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion. ........................................................................................................3

CHAPTER 1 ..............................................................................................................4
ENGLISH IDIOMS AND THEIR COMPARISONS TO VIETNAMESE ONES...4
1.1. Definition of idiom. ........................................................................................4
1.2 Essential features of idioms .............................................................................6
1.2.1 Figurativeness ...........................................................................................6
1.2.2 Stability of use ..........................................................................................7
1.2.3 Stability of lexicology ...............................................................................7
1.2.4 Stability of grammatical structure.............................................................8
1.3 Idioms in relation to free phrases and proverbs. ..............................................9
1.3.1 Idioms and free phrases ............................................................................9
1.3.2 Idioms in relation to proverbs. ................................................................10
1.3.2.1 Definition of proverbs ......................................................................10
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1.3.2.2 Similarities between idioms and proverbs .......................................10
1.3.2.3. Differences between idioms and proverbs ......................................11
1.3.2.4 Conclusion .......................................................................................12
1.4 Classification of English idioms. ...................................................................13
1.4.1 Lexicology-based classification. .............................................................13
1.4.1.1 Phraseological fusions .....................................................................13
1.4.1.2 Phraseological unities ......................................................................14

1.4.1.3 Phraseological combinations ...........................................................15
1.4.2 Structure-based classification .................................................................15
1.4.2.1 Phrase idioms ...................................................................................15
1.4.2.2 Clause idioms ...................................................................................15
1.4.2.3 Sentence idioms ...............................................................................16
1.5 English and Vietnamese idioms in contrast ...................................................16
1.5.1 Similarities ..............................................................................................16
1.5.1.1. Idioms involving plant/ fruits/ vegetables. .....................................17
1.5.1.2. Idioms involving parts of body. ......................................................18
1.5.1.3. Idioms involving animals................................................................18
1.5.2 Differences ..............................................................................................20
CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................24
GENERALIZATION ABOUT TRANSLATION METHODS AND ENGLISH
IDIOMS TRANSLATION ......................................................................................24
2.1. Definition oof translation. .............................................................................24
2.2. Translation process .......................................................................................25
2.3. How translation is conducted ........................................................................28
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2.4. Methods of translation ..................................................................................29
2.4.1. Some approaches to translation. ............................................................29
2.4.2. Some translation methods ......................................................................30
2.4.2.1. Comments on the methods .............................................................30
2.4.2.2. Equivalent effect .............................................................................32
2.4.3. Communicative translation ....................................................................34
2.4.3.1. What does communicative translation mean? ................................34
2.4.3.2. The merit of communicative translation .........................................35
2.4.3.3. Communicative and semantic translation. ......................................36
2.5. English idioms translation.............................................................................38

2.5.1. The nature of English idiom translation ................................................38
2.5.2. Requirements of satisfactory translation of English idioms ..................39
2.5.3. Some methods for translating English idioms into Vietnamese ............40
CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS ..........................................................................42
3.1 – Methodology ...............................................................................................42
3.1.1 Purpose of the survey ..............................................................................42
3.1.2 Population of the survey .........................................................................42
3.1.3 Type of the survey ..................................................................................43
3.4 Construction of the survey .........................................................................43
3.1.5 Administration of the try-out ..................................................................44
3.1.5.1 Preparation of the try-out .................................................................44
3.1.5.2 Try-out .............................................................................................44
3.1.6 Method of data analysis ..........................................................................44
3.2 Results of the survey ......................................................................................45
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3.2.1 Result from the group of English major students ...................................45
3.2.2

Result from the group of teachers of English. ...................................57

After being collected, the questionnaires from the second group of
participants ( the teachers of English in FLF, HPU2) have been analyzed
with the following results.................................................................................57
3.3 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................58
CHAPTER 4: ...........................................................................................................60
THE APPLICATION OF COMMUNICATIVE TRANSLATION METHOD IN
TRANSLATING ENGLISH IDIOMS INTO VIETNAMESE ...............................60
4.1. Introduction ...................................................................................................60

4.2. Scope of the application. ...............................................................................60
4.3 The application of communicative translation in translating English
idioms into Vietnamese........................................................................................61
4.3.1 Translating phraseological fusions .........................................................61
4.3.2 Translating phraseological unities and phraseological combinations ....66
4.3.2.1 Modification .....................................................................................67
4.3.2.2. Substitution .....................................................................................69
4.4 Notes for the application of communicative translation in translating
English idioms into Vietnamese ..........................................................................74
I.

Review of the study ....................................................................................77

II. Suggestions for futher studies ........................................................................78
REFERENCE ...........................................................................................................79
APPENDIX ..............................................................................................................82

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PART ONE
INTRODUCTION
Part one introduced the rationale, the aims, the research questions, the
significance, the scope and the design of the study.
1.

Rationale
In the modern world today, globalization has brought in a range of

developmental opportunities in different areas from economy, politic to culture

and society. Among 5,000 to 6,000 living languages, it is truly known that
English has become a means of international communication in the aspects of
business, commerce, education and so on.
The majority of information in the internet comes in English language.
Therefore, the prerequisite factor of individual’s success mostly depends on the
ability to seek in the internet. It is certainly right to say that if you want to gain
that needed information, you have to know English. In reality, there is
remarkably a limitation in interpretation of English among Vietnamese people.
Peter Newmark (1988) argued that a translation is something that has to be
discussed. In too many schools and universities, it is still being imposes as an
exercise in felicitous English style, where the wart of the original are ignored.
The teacher more or less imposes a fair copy which is a “model” of his own
English rather than proposing a version for discussion and criticism by students,
some of whom will be brighter than he is.
Many translation services are labeled with the title “disaster”. Although there
are many barriers like custom and geographic factors being deep-seated in
culture in each nation, translational mistake should be in acceptable level which
can not impute the blame for these objective factors. Especially in idiomatic
translation, there are several approaches to deal with them. Because idioms take
root in a nation’s customs, history, religion, and even geography, they may
become case-specific and their literal definitions seem, oftentimes, nonsensical.

1


It can not be denied that Vietnamese students rarely use English idioms in
communication. If there’s any, that is not be employed in proper way in most of
time. Students commonly don’t want express English idiom with the reason of
precision. Therefore, there are always fear of what the idiom actually means or
which situation they can be used. This has given me the desire to conduct a

study to find out the ultimate method to translate idioms in English into
Vietnamese.

2.

Aims of the study
 Reviewing translation theories and translation methods established by
famous authors as well as commenting on communicative translation
 Providing an overview of idioms, the similarities and differences
between English and Vietnamese idioms and commenting on English
idioms translation
 Applying communicative translation to translate English idioms into
Vietnamese
 The ultimate aim of the study is to prove the researcher’s view that
communicative translation is the most suitable method for translating
English idioms into Vietnamese.

3.

Research significance.
The result of the study is expected to be useful input not only for the

researcher but also for the English learner. With regard to the researcher, it is
the valued contribution of researcher for studying on translation and learning
English in general. In terms of learners, it may be a truly method for them to
approach English translation and help them address some difficulties in English
– Vietnamese translation in a finest way.
4. Scope of the study
This paper focuses on communicative translation and its application in
translating English idioms into Vietnamese. It does not mention the application

2


of other methods or the application of communicative translation in translating
other issues.
5.

Working methods
In this study, the author uses the following methods:
o Synthesizing theoretical documents on translation and idioms
o Analyzing available translation materials in books and newspapers
o Consulting experienced people on the matters concerned

6.

The hypothesis
This hypothesis is conducted on the thesis that communicative translation
is the most suitable method to translate English idioms into Vietnamese.

7.

Design of the research work.

The study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development and
Conclusion.
Part I: INTRODUCTION outlines the rationale, the aim, the scope, the method,
the significance and the design of the study.
Part II: DEVELOPMENT consists of four chapters.


Chapter One: touches upon idioms in English as well as
present their comparisons to Vietnamese idioms.



Chapter Two: shows the overall knowledge of translation
such as translation theories, methods and techniques, and
suggests some methods for translating English idioms in to
Vietnamese.



Chapter Three: result shows the detailed results and analysis
on the data collected from survey questionnaires.



Chapter Four: is the key chapter of the thesis which
demonstrates the application of communicative translation in
translating English idioms into Vietnamese.

Part III: gives a conclusion of all the major issues discussed in the thesis, along
with putting forward some suggestions for further studies.
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CHAPTER 1
ENGLISH IDIOMS AND THEIR COMPARISONS TO VIETNAMESE ONES

1.1. Definition of idiom.

In an issue of The Modern Language Journal (1960: 293 - 294), Pike
describes language as “ a structural part of a larger whole part of life’s total
behavioral action and structure, intimately linked to social interaction”. As an
effective means of communication and expression, language is under constant
change, reflecting changing in reality; therefore it is considered “ a living
thing”.
It is observed that in the need of denoting new things, concepts, new
words, collocation, structures are formed on the basic of available ones.
However, on the one hand, human beings usually try to achieve economy in
using language i.e. to accurately express ideas, emotion, etc. with fewest word;
on the other hand, they seek new forms of expression, which are figurative,
vivid and easy to remember. Consequently, various figurative structures come
to appearance, many of which are considered idioms. Idioms constitute essential
part of any language; they reflect the development of language – a living thing.
Like other things, idioms have many definitions. In Oxford Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary (Hornby & Whehmeier, 1992), English idioms have two
definitions: the first is “ a phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from
the meaning of its individual and which must be learnt as a whole unit”, e.g.: a
storm in a teacup, burn the candle at both ends, make ends meet …; the second
is “ a language or dialect of a people or country, use of language that is typical
of or natural to speaker of a particular language, use of language peculiar to a
period or an individual”. In their book “English idioms and how to use”, Seidl
and Mordie (1982) provide a similar definition: “ An idiom is a number of
words which, taken together, mean something different from the individual
words of the idiom when they stand alone” (1982: 14-15). These definitions are
4


not different from that in Vietnamese Dictionary, which describes an idioms as
“ a fixed word-group of habitual use, the meaning of which can not be deduced

from the meaning of the words forming the idioms”. It can be deduced that there
is virtually no difference among these definitions.
According to Hornby (2003), an idiom is an expression that cannot be
understood from the meanings of its separate words but that has a
separate meaning of its own.
The definition of idiom in Wikipedia is “ a word or phrase which
means something different from its literal meaning. Here, it can be seen that
idioms are common phrases or terms whose meaning are not real, but can be
understood by their popular use.
Because idioms can mean something different from what the words
which constitute them mean, it is difficult for someone who is not a native
speaker of a language to use them properly. Some idioms are only used by some
groups of people or at certain times. The idiom shape up or ship out, which
means improve your behavior or leave if you don't, might be said by an
employer or supervisor to an employee, but not to other people.
The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms defines an idiom as: “A form of
expression or a phrase peculiar to a language and approved by the usage of that
language[…] this includes a wide range of expressions that have become in a
sense fossilized within the language and are used in as fixed or semi-fixed way
without reference to the literal meaning of their component words (Speake,
1999)”. Baker (1992)’s definition of idioms is similar to those mentioned above.
She notes that idioms “carry meanings which cannot be deduced from their
individual components.”
Besides, there exist many other definitions of idiom. Some linguists
consider phrasal verbs, which others phrases by the others, as idioms. However,
it should be noted that though there are different definitions of idioms, almost
all linguists agree that an idiom is a phrase whose meaning is difficult and
5

sometimes impossible to guess by looking at the meaning of the individual
words it contains and that it exists in the form of a ready-made structure.
1.2 Essential features of idioms
1.2.1 Figurativeness
According to Nguyen (1999: 123), most linguists, regardless of their
ways of determining nature of idioms, are unanimous that figurativeness is one
of their most dominant characteristics. This characteristic stems from people’s
need to use language in a creative and flexible way.
It is common that people are never satisfied with their ways of
expression, as they find it very tedious to express their ideas, attitudes, emotion,
etc. by repeatedly – used style with plain words, structures. What they desire is
to use their language flexibly, vividly, wittily, and figuratively. That results in
the occurrence of new expressive and figurative structures. In addition, when
denoting or describing something, people sometimes do not use simple
adjectives, adverbs, nouns, or structures but often compare it with something
else. Thus, people, things and phenomena in daily life are often used in
idioms, someone or something. As a result, in many circumstances, when trying
to achieve their aim of communication, speakers and writers often do so without
knowing that they actually are metaphors or similes, making their language
more vivid and colorful. In fact, many idioms exist in the form of metaphors
and similes, by which, they appear to be figurative and expressive.
As stated above, people always desire to use language flexibly, vividly,
wittily and figuratively. Sometimes they choose phrases or sentences instead of
an available word to express their ideas. For instance, one may choose to live in
a fantasy world rather than to be impractical when talking about someone. Such
choice seems insensible because the expression would be wordy. However, by
using phrases or structures, the speaker or writer can make up for what he loses
in economy with what he gains in figurativeness, vividness. Idioms are effective
means to achieve that aim. However, they should be aware that the degree of
6

figurativeness may vary a lot, depending on particular idioms used and on
individual interpretation of each people.
In conclusion, idioms are characterized by figurativeness. This feature of
idioms makes language more flexible, colorful and enhances expressiveness and
effectiveness in communication.
1.2.2 Stability of use
In 1.1, the author point out that almost all linguists agree that an idiom
exists in the form of a ready-made structure. Idioms are fixed word-groups that
people use habitually. This results in the stability of use of idioms. They can not
be created or altered due to one’s desire; and one should not attempt to use
grammatical rules to determine whether an idiom is correct or not. For example,
half the world know the other half lives is an idiom formed and used without
connection with grammatical rules (here the verb know is in plural form while
lives is in singular form although they follow the same subject half the world).
Consequently, speakers or writers can only choose idioms suitable for certain
circumstances, not create them for their own purpose. For example, in order to
refer to a person’s arrogance as he keeps teaching others about what they
already do well, one may use to teach grandmother to suck eggs (in English) or
trứng khôn hơn vịt (in Vietnamese). However, it should be remembered that
idioms are considered double-edged means of expression. On one hand, they are
expressive, figurative and vivid. On the other hand, they are only apt for certain
situations. Any misuse of idioms can distort the intended meaning and even
cause counter-effect.
1.2.3 Stability of lexicology
Stability of lexicology of idioms is the stability of their components.
Components of idioms remain stable and not substitutional, i.e. they can not be
altered or substituted; otherwise the meaning of the whole expression would
change. For example, a red herring is an idiom that does not refer to a herring

but to a fact, an argument, etc. leading attention away from the matter being
7


considered. Supposed that

red is substituted by green, blue, or any other

adjectives denoting color; or a herring is replaced with salmon, dolphin or
names of other kinds of fish, the new collocation, not new idiom, will have a
new meaning that can be deduced from individual words. Then a black herring
certainly refers to a herring which is black, definitely different from a fact,
argument, etc, as a red herring does.
However, it is recognized that components of some idioms are sometimes
substituted by other words but the meaning of the idioms remain intact. In
English to put somebody under an obligation is not different from to place
somebody under an obligation. Similarly, in Vietnamese two idioms tiu nghỉu
như mèo cắt tai and tiu ngỉu như mèo mất tai have the same meaning.
Nevertheless, it is noticeable that such cases stem from the fact that language
usage varies from particular groups of people to others, from areas to areas;
people may not choose a word but a synonym, or another word close in meaning
and their choice is acceptable. Therefore, that a component of a particular idiom
can be substituted by another word without changing the meaning of the unit as
a whole is understandable, but such cases are not typical.
In short, despite some exceptions, the stability of lexicology is still
considered an essential feature of idioms.
1.2.4 Stability of grammatical structure
Stability of use and stability of lexicology result in stability of
grammatical structure of idioms. As discussed in 1.2.3, if the components of
idioms are substituted or the word order is changed, the meaning will be altered.

As to grammatical structure, even though all components and word-order are
preserved, the meaning of idioms still change if plurals are turned into singulars
( and vice versa). John kicked the bucket can mean 1) Joln kicked a bucket, 2)
John died. Here the intended meaning can be worked out in a given context. But
John kicked the buckets only means John kicked some buckets with the verb kick
merely denoting a physical action by one’s foot. By putting bucket in plural
8


form, the “idiom” no longer has its original meaning. Obviously, a change in
grammatical structure of the idiom results in its meaning distortion.
1.3 Idioms in relation to free phrases and proverbs.
1.3.1 Idioms and free phrases
So far there has been a concept of “set-expressions” denoting ready-made
word-groups, structures, etc. characterized by figurativeness, stability of use,
stability of lexicology, and stability of grammatical structures. Having such
characteristics, idioms certainly belong to the category of ”set-expressions”. In
the author’s viewpoint, idioms should necessarily be considered a particular
kind of “set-expressions” to be distinguished from “free phrases”.
For starters, the difference between “set expressions” and free phrases
lies in figurativeness and stability. As to free phrases, their meaning can be
straightly guessed from the meaning of the individual words whereas the
meaning of “set-expressions” can hardly be guessed from those of their
components. Hit the cow/elephant on the head certainly refers to a stuck on an
animal (here it may be a bull, a cow, or an elephant). But hit the nail on the
head does not refer to a struck on a nail; it indicates that someone guesses
something exactly. Similarly, hit the ceiling and hit the roof have the same
meaning that can not be deduced from hit, roof or ceiling . Therefore, in certain
circumstances, one can build the right free phrases for the aim of
communication but he can not create idioms. For instance, he may say it is

raining very heavily or it is pouring with rain. If he wants to express the same
idea by idioms, he can only choose ready-made structures like it is raining
buckets or it is raining cats and dogs. Obviously, free phrases can be created by
one’s need while idioms can not. Furthermore, considering lexicological and
grammatical features, “set-expressions” and free phrases differ a lot. A change
in or a substitution of a component in free phrases never leads to a change in
meaning of the whole group while in “set-expressions” even a minor change can
cause meaning distortion. For example, a green flower and a red flower are
9


different but they both refer to a flower. Meanwhile, a black sheep and a white
sheep are totally different, as the former refers to a bad person in a family while
the latter only refers to an animal (here, a sheep which is white).
Obviously, as idioms belong to the category of “set expressions”, they
can be distinguished from free phrases by the degree of the figurativeness,
stability of use, lexicology and grammatical structures. But it is noticeable that
“set-expressions” do not comprise only idioms but also proverbs. As a result,
when considering idioms, it is necessary to review them in relation to proverbs.
1.3.2 Idioms in relation to proverbs.
1.3.2.1 Definition of proverbs
According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Encyclopedic Dictionary, a
proverb is a “short well-known saying that states a general truth or gives
advice”. Vietnamese Dictionary defines proverb as “short, rhythmic saying
expressing knowledge, life experience and morality of people”. Hoang Tat
Truong, a Vietnamese linguist, gives another definition: “ A proverb is a short
saying expressing people’s wisdom, a truth or a moral lesson in a concise and
imaginary way”. Thus proverbs could be considered not only treasures of a
nation but also valuable materials for various branches of science. According to
the analysis of proverbs in folklove it can be said that through proverbs,

historians can find far-off traces and proof; lawyers consider them as a people’s
law; ethnographers discover lost manners and customs; philosophers could
thoroughly understand the popular ideology”. Thus, proverb can be considered
socially standardlized lifestyles and commonly accepted behaviors which are
drawn out from people’s knowledge and experiences in life.
1.3.2.2 Similarities between idioms and proverbs
As discussed in 1.3.1, “set-expressions” comprise not only idioms but
also proverbs. That is, both idioms and proverbs exist in the form of ready-made
structures. These two forms of expression can not be created by the writer’s or

10


speaker’s desire. They can only choose the suitable idioms or proverbs in
certain situations.
Figurativeness is one of major similarities of idioms and proverbs. The
meaning of idioms and proverbs can not be worked out easily from the meaning
of their components. For example, Every dog has its day is rather figurative. It
certainly does not refer to a dog. Behind this expression exists an a meaning
denoting something like: Never be pessimistic, everyone is not always unlucky,
he/she certainly will have opportunities. In Vietnamese, there is an equivalent
for this proverb: Sông có khúc, người có lúc.
Considering idioms and proverbs, one can realize that they sometimes
overlap, making it difficult to figure out whether an expression is an idiom or a
proverbs. According to Nguyen Van Hang (1999:68), in fact, there exist idioms
in many circumstances (e.g. cốc mò cò xơi or giật gấu vá vai). Furthermore, it is
noticeable that idioms can form the basis of proverbs. Black sheep, an idiom
indicating a person in a family who is disliked, forms the basis of every family
has a black sheep, a proverb showing a general truth: Everything can not be
equal. A rolling stone and a rolling stone gathers no moss can also serve as

good examples.
In short, belonging to “set-expressions”, idioms and proverbs share some
features, namely figurativeness, stability of use, lexicology and grammatical
structure. The similarities of idioms and proverbs sometimes pose a challenge to
working out whether an expression is an idiom or a proverb. Therefore, it is
advisable to point out the differences between these two types of “setexpressions”.
1.3.2.3. Differences between idioms and proverbs
Described as “set-expressions”, both idioms and proverbs exist in the
form of ready-made structures. However, they do not have the same forms. A
proverb is a full sentence and acts as an independent one. An idiom, on the

11


contrary, in some cases may have the form of a sentence but can only work as a
component of a sentence.
In examining of idioms, Nguyen (1999: 65 - 66) states that an idiom
“often function as a component of sentence”. In Vietnamese, such idioms as
Chuột sa chĩnh gạo or gà trống nuôi con have structures of sentences, but may
serve as adjective (e.g. anh ta sống trong cảnh gà trống nuôi con từ đó tới giờ)
From the definition of proverb, it can be seen that they often express a
general truth, transmit life experiences or convey moral lessons. Therefore,
according to Pham (1996:11), a proverb can be considered a perfect “literary
work” as it has three basic function: cognitive function, aesthetic function, and
educational function. Such functions can be recognized when a proverb is
analyzed. For example: The early bird catches the worm. This proverb shows
life experience and perception of people in reality: the bird that comes before
others can catch the worm first, and that is always true. In addition, by
transmitting life experience (or a general truth), the proverb gives a moral
lesson: Do not delay to do anything, the sooner the better, fulfilling its

educational function. Finally, it is undeniable that the proverb has its own
aesthetic value; since bird and worm here are used to refer to human: here they
can be considered metaphors and make the expression more figurative, more
likely to exert certain influence on the recipients.
Like proverbs, idioms are figurative as they often contain metaphors and
similes. Thus they have aesthetic function. However, idioms do not reflect
people’s experience, a general truth or convey moral lesson; They mainly work
as means to achieve people’s aim in communication. To kick the bucket is
certainly a vivid expression but it does not show people’s perception or give an
advice or a moral lesson. Without cognitive and educational function, idioms
are obviously different from proverbs.
1.3.2.4 Conclusion

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Idioms and proverbs have much in common as well as differences The
similarities and differences between these two types of set expression make it a
difficult work to distinguish between them. It still remains controversial among
linguist to draw a line between idioms and proverbs. That is the reasons why
some idioms are used as proverbs and vice versa. However, such a phenomenon
does not mean idioms and proverb are not distinguishable; It only prove that
language is a living thing. In language, not everything is stable or invariable.
1.4 Classification of English idioms.
As discussed in 1.1, the need of denoting new things, concept or using
vivid, flexible and fingurative forms of expression is one of the cause of the
formation of idioms. However, there are no concrete formula for forming
idioms. Consequently idioms vary greatly in their forms. Therefore, linguists
have various criteria to classify idioms: for example, they can base on
figurativeness, structures, lexicology, function,

etc. In this paper, the author would like to mention two methods for classifying
idioms that are considered the most relevant to the translation of idioms. One is
based on lexicology, the other is based on structure.
1.4.1 Lexicology-based classification.
According to Nguyen Minh Trang (1998: 18-20), such famous Russian
linguists as V.V. Vinogradov, A.I. Smirnitsky, A.V. Koonin, N.N. Amosova
consider lexicological characters criteria for classifying idioms. Adopting these
criteria, they put idioms into three types: phraseological fusions, phraseological
unities, and phraseological combinations.
1.4.1.1 Phraseological fusions
Phraseological fusion is the highest stage of blending words together with
complete stability of lexical components. This type of idiom is considered
completely non-motivated, for there is no connection between the meaning of
the components and that of the unit as a whole. In other words, it is impossible
to guess the meaning of the idiom from those of it components. Fits and starts,
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tit for tat, a red herring are examples of this type. Any attempt to make sense of
such idioms by combining the meaning of their components would result in
misinterpretation of the intended implication of the idiom. Take the following
example: When John kicked the bucket, his children became rich.
Suppose the one does not interpret kick the bucket as a unit, he would
perceive that “ John’s children became rich because he kicked the bucket (with
his feet), perhaps by kicking the bucket, John earns a lot of money. Instead, kick
the bucket should be treated as a unit, an idiom, so the given sentence can be
interpreted as when John died, his children became rich. That would be natural
and acceptable.
From the example above, it can be concluded that phraseological fusion
can not be interpreted based on literal meaning of its components. Thus, they

can not be translated literally.
1.4.1.2 Phraseological unities
Phraseological unities differ from phraseological fusions mainly by their
less stability lexical components. As the former is completely non-motivated,
the latter is consider partially non-motivated. Sometimes meanings of the
idiom’s components can give clues to grasping the meaning of the whole unit
(e.g. strike one’s mind; make one’s mind; live in a fantasy world). This
characteristic, as a result, lead to another one: Synonymic substitution i.e.
certain components of idioms can be substituted by synonyms without changing
the whole unit’s meaning. Such a substitution is acceptable (as discussed in
1.2.3). Therefore, it is possible to use have both feet on the ground or keep both
feet on the ground in the same situation.
Dealing with phraseological unities, one should not ignore metaphoric
meanings of whole unit apart from lexical meanings of its components. The
individual words of have one foot in the grave can be interpreted literally but
the metaphoric meaning can only be perceived through the implication of the

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unit as a whole. Therefore, translation of phraseology unities should be based on
both literal and metaphoric meaning extracted from them.
1.4.1.3 Phraseological combinations
Unlike

phraseological

fusions

(completely

non-motivated)

and

phraseological unities (partially non-motivated), phraseological combinations
are considered motivated. This kind of idioms’ structure consist of one
component giving literal meaning and another giving figurative meaning. Due
to this characteristic, one can partially guess the meaning of an idiom from
literal meaning of a component; figurative meaning would help him to do the
rest. (For instance, change hands, in hand). As a result, the difference between
phraseological fusions, phraseological unites and phraseological combinations
lies in the fact that figurative meaning of phraseological fusions and
phraseological unities is created by the whole unit while in phraseological
combinations it depends only on a component.
1.4.2 Structure-based classification
According to Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2001:36-40), idioms can be classified
into three categories based on structural features: Phrase idioms, clause idioms
and sentence idioms. In each category, idioms are divided into some types:
1.4.2.1 Phrase idioms
- Noun phrase idioms: e.g. an old hand, a black sheep
- Adjective phrase idioms: e.g. free and easy, safe and sound
- Adverbial phrase idioms: e.g. as hungry as a horse
As poor as c church mouse
1.4.2.2 Clause idioms
- Verb + complement: e.g. to come true
- Verb + direct object: e.g. to make one’s mind
- Verb + direct object + object complement: e.g. to paint the town red
- Verb + indirect object + direct object: e.g. to give somebody a hand
- Verb + direct object + adjunct: e.g. to tale something amiss

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1.4.2.3 Sentence idioms
- Simple sentence idioms: e.g. history repeat itself
- Compound sentence idioms: e.g. see them come and see them go
- Complex sentence idioms: e.g. when the cat is away, the mice will
play

1.5 English and Vietnamese idioms in contrast
Defined as “idiom”, any these forms of expression in any languages
would share many essential features. Obviously, however, idioms are created in
a certain language under the influence of geographical, historic, political, social
factors that vary with different degrees from countries to countries, peoples to
peoples, etc. Therefore, idioms of different language have both similarities and
differences. In this part of the paper, the author would like to take into account
the similarities and differences of English and Vietnamese idioms.
1.5.1 Similarities
It is certain that both English and Vietnamese idioms have essential
features: figurativeness, stability of use, stability of lexicology, stability of
grammatical structure. However, one can realize more similarities between
English and Vietnamese idioms if he considers metaphors, similes, functions of
idioms in the two languages as well as the way people use them.
Though English and Vietnamese differ, these two languages reflect
people’s perception, attitude, etc., which may coincide in certain cases. As a
result, many idioms in English and Vietnamese reflecting people’s perception,
experience or description of things, phenomena, etc have similar forms and use
the same metaphors or simile. Like water off a duck’s back, as black as a coal,
as light as a feather are not different from nước đổ đầu vịt, đen như than, nhẹ
như lông hồng respectively.

Apart from this similarity, it is obvious that idioms, either in English or in
Vietnamese, may function as components of proverbs, as discussed in 1.3.2.2.
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